Controller housing construction



May 19, 1959 I J. F. SUAREZ GRAU CONTROLLER HOUSING CONSTRUCTION Filed Jan. 9, 1956 I i I INVENTOR. 14% 5mm.

ATTORNEY United States Patent CONTROLLER HOUSING CONSTRUCTION Julio F. Suarez Gran, Milford, 'Conn., assignor to The A. C. Gilbert Company, New Haven, Conn., a corporation of Maryland Application January 9, 1956, Serial No. 558,107

1 Claim. (Cl. 220-4) This invention relates to variablev transformers such as are used in the field of toys to control the running of miniature or model electric trains. The improvements particularly reside in housing structure for such transformers.

Heretofore it has been proposed to mount the electrically wound magnet core of a toy train controller deep in the cupped interior of a box-like case open at the top and equipped with a removable sheet metal cover.

Because of inaccessibility of the magnet core of the transformer with its winding and circuit connections when so confined in a deeply cupped case and because it is preferred to support the voltage varying contact wiper and its manual control handle upon the cover of the case so as to be separable from the case and its contents when the cover is removed, much time consuming labor has been involved in testing and correcting the performance of a controller thus assembled. This contributes to a high cost of production of a controller selling as a toy that burdens the selling price thereby made necessary in the retail field.

An object of this invention is to facilitate access to all of the cooperating parts of a variable toy controller by arranging its transformer, as well as its manually operated parts, to be carried by the cover and removed therewith from the case for inspection, test and adjustment while free from enclosure by the case and fully accessible.

A further object is to simplify and save cost in the production of a sheet metal housing for a toy controller by combining with an open-topped, sheet metal box a cover of insulative material for carrying all of the functioning parts of the controller including the transformer, such cover to be permanently secured to the open top of the sheet metal box without the use of any holding means that can easily be unfastened or permit tampering with the internal parts by the user.

A still further object is to construct a box-like case having a false bottom separated from its real bottom to provide a heat dissipating space and consisting of only two interfitting parts of bent sheet metal, one forming the false bottom and side walls of the case and the other forming the true bottom and end walls of the case.

The foregoing and other advantages of the invention will be clear in greater particular from the following description of a preferred embodiment having reference to the accompanying drawings wherein:

Fig. 1 is a perspective external view of a toy train controller embodying the improvements.

Fig. 2 is a view taken mainly in section on the plane 22 in Fig. 1, looking in the direction of the arrows.

Fig. 3 is a fragmentary view of a corner construction drawn on an enlarged scale taken in section on the plane 3-3 in Fig. 1.

Fig. 4 is a perspective view of one of the casing parts forming a false bottom and the side walls of the case.

Fig. 5 is a perspective view of the complementary casing part forming a true bottom and the end walls of the case.

Fig. 6 is a view drawn on an enlarged scale taken mainly in section on the plane 6-6 in Fig. l, looking in the direction of the arrows.

The transformer unit comprises a magnet core 13 and its electrical coil 14 of insulated wire whose strands on the top surface of the coil are bared in an arcuatepath to be wrped as usual by the contacting free end of a current take-off conductive leaf spring arm 15 in a manner that is illustrated in greater detail in US. Patent No. 2,661,461. Arm 15 is swung by means of the controller handle 19 between limit positions determined by stop studs 30 stationed in its path.

The housing comprises a box-like composite structure open at the top and made of two simple parts 16 and 17 preferably made of bent sheet metal as separately shown in Figs. 4 and 5. The cover 18 is preferably a thickish plate of insulative material.

Whereas heretofore the transformer unit 12 in toy controllers of the present type has been so incorporated within its housing structure that the voltage selecting controller handle 19 and/or the take-off arm 15 must be separated from the transformer unit inorder to gain access to the interior of the housing for inspection and adjustment of the controller and its functions, the transformer body 12 herein, together with the take-off arm 15 and controller handle 19, are all mounted on and supported solely by the cover 18 so as to be independent of support by or fastening to the housing parts 16, 17.

Fig. 2 shows the transformer body 12 thus mounted on the insulative cover plate 18 through the medium of a bracket 20 of inverted U-shape fixedly secured to the cover by rivets 21 and by the peaned over stud end of one binding post 22. Additional binding posts for electrical connection appear at 23 and 24 carried externally by cover 18. Controller handle 19, made of insulating material, is coupled in fixed rotary relation to take-off arm 15 by a vertical pivot pin 25 extending through journal 26 which swivels in a rotary bearing hole in the cover.

The bottom surface of cover 18 has marginal grooves 27. Slots 28 extend upward from grooves 27 and terminate in recesses 29 at the top surface of the cover. These recesses accommodate the bent-over tabs 31 shown in Fig. 5 in their upstanding position before assembling. The grooves 27 register with and seat on the top edges of the box parts 16, 17. Box part 16 is made by bending flat sheet metal to the U-shape shown in Fig. 4 to form the upright side walls 33 continuous with floor wall 32. Wall 32 will constitute a false or elevated bottom wall for the casing. An external flange 34 and internal flanges 35 are bent inward from the end margins of side walls 33 in relatively offset relation in spaced apart planes to receive between them the side edges of end walls 36 of part 17. End walls 36 are continuous with floor wall 37 which serves as the true bottom of the casing. The lengths and widths of floor walls 32 and 37 are sufficiently alike so that the top edges of all of said upright walls meet at upright corners of the box to form a fully enclosing rim about the open top of the box.

Pierced and bent inward from each end wall 36 there is a shelf-like flange on which the floor wall 32 of casing part 16 rests when the casing parts 16 and 17 are telescoped into assembled relation as shown in Fig. 1 by dropping part 16 into part 17. Both casing parts are consequently held firmly together when the tabs 31 are bent over in the cover recesses 29 as shown in Fig. 3. The floor wall 37 of easing part 17 has downwardly dished bosses 40 to serve as feet on which to stand and may also be provided with apertures 41 for screws to fasten the controller to a support surface.

Suitable lead wires and/ or bus bars (not herein shown) will connect the binding posts 23 and 24 in proper circuit relation to the transformer coil 14 and will place binding post 22 in electrical connection with current takeoff arm 15 through its pivot structure, all such lead wires being longenough to permit separation of cover 18 from the casing parts while the Wires retain their electrical connections. (hirrent is supplied to the controller through attachment cord entering through an aperture in cover 8.

The appended claims are directed to and intended to cover all fair equivalents of the exact shapes and arrangements of parts herein shown to illustrate the invention.

' 1 claim:

- A composite housing for a heat generating electric unit comprising separable sections combined to form an open topped receptacle having plural floor walls spaced vertically apart to provide a heat dissipative gap therebetween, embodying in combination, a base forming section having a bottom floor wall continuous with end walls upstanding from opposite margins thereof and a supplementary section having a relatively elevated floor wall located sufiiciently above said bottom floor wall to provide between said walls a heat dissipating space, side walls continuous with said elevated floor walls upstanding from opposite margins of the latter coextensive laterallywith the distance between said end Walls, whereby 25 the upright walls of both housing sections meet to form four closed corners of a box-like structure adapted to encompass the electric unit, at least one of said end Walls having a ventilating aperture communicating with said heat dissipating space, a shelf comprising a piercedout portion of the said end wall forming the said ventilating aperture and bent to project inward from said end wall at the border of said aperture and underlying and supporting the said elevated floor wall, and a cover bridging the open top of said receptacle adapted to carry said electric unit and fastened to the tops of said walls in a manner to determine and maintain cooperatively with said shelf said space between said floor walls.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATESPATENTS Re. 19,957 Smith May 5, 1936 767,378 Bower Aug. 16, 1904 1,557,066 Krants Oct. 13, 1925 1,641,265 Gaynor Sept. 6, 1927 1,870,616 Evans Aug. 9, 1932 2,061,452 Comstock Nov. 17, 1936 2,418,687 Arnesen Apr. 8, 1947 FOREIGN PATENTS 566,639 Great Britain Ian. 8, 1945 

